SC ATE Center Receives National Science Foundation Funding

The S.C. Advanced Technological Education (SC ATE ) National Resource Center for Expanding Excellence in Technician Education, headquartered at Florence-Darlington Technical College, has been awarded a $1.6 million National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to support its Advancing Faculty Development and Program Improvement plan.

Dr. Joshua Phiri, principal investigator for the project, said the SC ATE National Resource Center will be adapting and implementing innovative strategies and using Web 2.0 technologies to expand the services and increase use of http://www.teachingtechnicians.org/; scale up peer mentoring and technical assistance to affect program improvement in technician education; identify and broadly disseminate proven and promising strategies for program improvement, with a specific focus on broadening participation of underrepresented groups; and, stimulate the use of evaluation tools with faculty development programs to identify and sustain success and help foster a culture of evaluation in the ATE program.

SC ATE presents at HI-TEC Conference.

SC ATE partnered with ATE TV and ATE Central to present a session on ATE Online Resources at HI-TEC in July. HI-TEC is a national conference on advanced technical education where technical educators, counselors, industry professionals, and technicians can update their knowledge and skills. Charged with Educating America's Technical Workforce, the event focuses on the preparation needed by the existing and future workforce for companies in the high-tech sectors that drive our nation's economy. Save the date for next year in SAN FRANCISCO, July 25-28, 2011!